By Scott Gilfoid: #2 WBA middleweight contender Chris Eubank Jr. (22-0, 17 KOs) stopped British middleweight champion Nick Blackwell (19-4-1, 8 KOs) in the 10th round on Saturday night to capture the British title at the Wembley Arena in London, UK. The fight was halted during the 10th round by ringside doctor due to swelling of Blackwell’s left eye. Blackwell later had to be taken out of the ring on a stretcher. I hope Blackwell is going to be okay because he took a terrible beating tonight, and he looked in bad shape when he was being taken out of the ring.
Blackwell was bleeding from his nose from the third round. That was a product of him just covering up like a sparring partner and letting Eubank Jr. open up with flurries. Blackwell was with constant uppercuts that he seemed to have no defense for. He wasn’t moving his head, and he was up against the ropes covering up during long stretches in each round. The uppercuts that Eubank Jr. was able to land in the fight really did damage to Blackwell. But I think more than anything, it was the sheer accumulation of head shots that Blackwell took in the fight.
Blackwell was going to the ropes in every round, and just covering up and taking punishment. I didn’t hear Blackwell’s trainer in between rounds lecturing him to stay off the ropes. He should have been getting in Blackwell’s face to stress the importance of him staying in the center of the ring, because he was getting hammered by Eubank Jr. when he would retreat to the ropes.
Eubank Jr. was teeing off all night long against the weak-punching Blackwell. However, Eubank Jr. was hurt in the 7th round by a right hand from Blackwell while showboating. Luckily for Eubank Jr, Blackwell couldn’t take advantage of it due to his weak punches.
The fight was one-sided from the start, but it got much more one-sided starting in the 8th. Blackwell kept making the mistake of retreating to the ropes. This enabled Eubank Jr. to throw flurries of arm punches with most of the shots missing or getting blocked. However, enough of the punches got through in that round to badly bloody Blackwell’s face. Surprisingly, the referee didn’t stop the fight because you can make an argument that the fight should have been halted due to Blackwell taking a ton of punishment. I mean, Blackwell was throwing an occasional shot back at Eubank Jr., but it was mainly after Eubank Jr. had throw eight or nine punches. Then Blackwell would throw a glacial slow right hand or left hook with no power on it at all, and it would invariably miss. The shots that Blackwell did land while trapped against the ropes in the 8th were very weak and had no effect against Eubank Jr. whatsoever.
In the 9th round, Eubank Jr. looked gassed from having thrown so many punches in the previous round. However, Blackwell couldn’t take advantage of it because he might have been punch drunk by that point in the fight from having eaten so many punches. He wasn’t even trying to take the fight to Eubank Jr. in the 9th despite him not throwing anything.
What was impossible not to notice from Eubank Jr. tonight is how he would fight hard for a portion of the round, and then do a walk about to get his wind. Eubank Jr. would gas and stay gassed for the remainder of the round. I can only imagine what would happen to Eubank Jr. if he tried that trick against one of the talented middleweights in the division like Gennady Golovkin. Once Eubank Jr. gassed out, Golovkin would bury him with head shots and the fight would be over on the spot. I hate to say it but Eubank Jr. is going to need to work on his stamina in a big way if he wants to be able to compete with the better fighters at 160. He cannot afford to fight hard for 30 seconds and then back off and be too tired to fight hard.
I don’t know why Eubank Jr. felt that he had to take his career in reverse and start fighting low level fighters like Blackwell. I makes no sense. I’m not putting Eubank Jr. in the same class as Golovkin, but could you imagine Golovkin deciding he wanted to go after a trinket title, and deciding to fight domestic level fighters just so he can pick up a belt. It would be dangerous for his opponent, because he’s a world class athlete. I’m sorry, but I don’t rate Blackwell as a world level fighter. That’s why this fight didn’t make any sense at all. What in the heck was Eubank Jr. doing fighting someone like Blackwell?
Eubank Jr looked like a novice in the ring with Blackwell. The only reason why Eubank Jr. didn’t get exposed in this fight was because he was with a domestic level guy with no power rather than a true contender or a championship level fighter. The World Boxing Council has Blackwell ranked #15 with their organization, and I think that’s about right. He’s a bottom feeder type fringe contender rather than a true top 10 contender, which is why it was so baffling that Eubank Jr. chose to fight him tonight. I mean, we’ve heard Eubank Jr. talk about how he can handle the likes of Golovkin, but instead of looking to fight him or Daniel Jacobs, Eubank Jr. chooses to fight the #15 WBC ranked Blackwell. What does that tell you about Eubank Jr? I think there’s some confidence issues with him. He said that he wants to go after the top fighters after tonight’s fight, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we see Eubank Jr. back in with another domestic level fighter. I could see him choosing to defend his newly won British title rather than going after a world champion or fighting one of the top contenders in the division.
All in all, Eubank Jr. looked terribly flawed and nowhere near good enough to beat the better fighters in the middleweight division. He’s one dimensional with his uppercuts. That’s the only punch Eubank Jr. can throw that has any power on it. He’s not a big puncher at all. If this had been someone like Gennady Golovkin, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Daniel Jacobs or even David Lemieux, Eubank Jr. would have been knocked out. He’s very, very limited. I guess that’s why he chose to give up his mandatory spot to fight Jacobs in order to fight for the domestic strap against Blackwell. Eubank Jr. seems to realize how limited he is.
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